Politiken…Even this culture-confrontation tableau is a coup – pure Dehlholm. The distance between us and them is tangible; it is
impossible to be completely sure of what is up and what is down, or where the Arabian world actually begins and ends. And what some of the spaces show us is hardly what we had expected, either.
– Monna Dithmer

A Play between Eye and Space – reflections on Hotel Pro Forma’s The Algebra of Place 1
– Christian Pagh

Copenhagen Post…Hotel Pro Forma is the only theatre group in existence in this country who successfully combines the two genres of live art and experimental theatre with works which require active spectatorship, thought and legwork..

A performance that investigates the Arabic CultureAlgebra of Place is an art installation, a film, a performance, seen from above. An architecture with optical illusions. A filmic narrative that, like a arabesque, winds its way through many fictive spaces. Spaces that open up with reception and gifts, show factual knowledge, give stories, and topical events. Spaces that tell about pomp and prejudice, personal care and gender-separated rituals, ancient knowledge, geometry and learning processes.

The woman is the recurring character – in a supporting role. She turns up at the edge of the picture, in the film or in the space as the person who fits herself in or as the one creating the narrative. In this way, the story acquires several points of view – true to the Arabian narrative tradition.

The spectators stand on balconies on seven floors, looking down into a well of images. The woman and the varying film projections challenge the eye and traditional angles from which things are viewed.

The woman is lying on the coach in the lounge before she disappears down the staircase to open the door to the secret space. In a corner, a boy sits playing. The scene in the conference room closes the tour with The Late Night Show. Finally, we talk on the phone with each other, with the world.

Voices, factual sounds and music from the Middle East fill the space as a co-playing sound image, composed on site by the female DJ.

Algebra of Place is an exchange of the thoughts, visions and experiences we have, we have imposed on us, at present, when it is more necessary than ever to distinguish between motive and cause, cause and effect, between names for races, religions and people, between politics, business, art and culture. Art’s comment on the world situation.

Algebra of Place deals with the formation of meanings, with how we construct meaning and significance, with how we break down and build up what is present, that which exists everywhere. The things are seen from many angles. It is movement as form. The sequence in itself is movement, with corridors, blind alleys, rooms and salons, departures and arrivals. An ornamented narrative that engages sight and senses, stimulates thought and reflection.